Dodgers Will Be Aggressive in Adding 'Really Good Players' at Deadline, Says Andrew Friedman

Maren Angus-Coombs | Jul 19, 2024

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

When the Los Angeles Dodgers spent more than $1 billion during the offseason, they never imagined they would be missing so many players due to injury at the All-Star break.

Los Angeles opens the second half of the season on Friday with a two-man starting rotation, a four-man lineup, and a patchwork bullpen. With the July 30 trade deadline around the corner, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman might have to make some unexpected moves to help the team get through this turbulent time.

“For us, I don’t think our mentality is different than it’s been in previous years in that we feel we have a really good team and to the extent that we can add really good players we’re going to be aggressive to do so,” Friedman said. “What appears to be a marginal upgrade is not something we’re going to spend a lot of time on. That doesn’t mean something is not going to happen along those lines but that’s not where our energy and focus will be.”

Friedman is confident Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller will return to the starting rotation before the postseason and so will shortstop Mookie Betts and third baseman Max Muncy.

Without their everyday lineup and lack of production from the bottom half, the Dodgers have been a .500 team. The lack of contributions from the bottom half of the lineup has been mindboggling and Friedman says it is "essential" that that changes in the second half.

“We all knew it was going to be top-heavy,” he said of the Dodgers’ lineup, led by former league MVPs Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. “But the delta between the top and the bottom – I don’t think anyone expected that. If you look at the baseball cards of those guys, it’s not this. I didn’t expect it to be this stark.”

With a list of about 10 players expected to return from the IL, Friedman is going to be extra picky about what kind of deals he makes at the deadline.

“I think each guy is a little bit unique. But there are also so many of them,” Friedman said. “There’s nine pitchers alone that we expect to return. … Each guy is obviously a little different but each day we gain more information and we have to balance that with the fact that July 30 is really the last time to make a move for an external player.”